Chapter 1

Hey guys, this is a blog containing my thoughts on James Joyce's novel, A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man. This first post will focus on the book's first chapter, which details the childhood of Stephen, the main character.

Within the first few pages of the novel, I was immediately struck by its odd and childish language and was pressured to read the chapter differently than I normally would. Stephen, as the main character, starts off as a tremendously unreliable narrator. In an act of genius, Joyce chooses to write the novel not in an adult perspective looking backwards, but as a progressive narrative led by Stephen (well, a third person connected to Stephen) as he grows up. This means that this first chapter is narrated by a young boy. Once I realized this fact, the book became more interesting to read, as I could see the development of this child's thought processes and his first experiences with the world.

Admittedly, I did not understand Mrs. Dalloway by Virginia Woolf when I first began reading it. The stream of consciousness technique was disorienting and difficult to follow as the narrative leaped between time and space and character and emotion. This first chapter of Joyce's novel (hereby referred to as APOTAAAYM) provided the same difficulty with its stream of consciousness narrative, but in a slightly more understandable manner. While Mrs. Dalloway jumped between characters and flashbacks, APOTAAAYM stays with a single character, making it easier to follow. However, attempting to understand the perspective of the boy Stephen, at least initially, was also difficult.

Leaving the narrative aside, two of the more interesting aspects of this chapter that I found was the development of Stephen's artistic and thoughtful side, as well as his encounter with other people. These two go hand in hand, as his unique nature often causes him to come into conflict with other people. As Stephen grows up, he ponders things such as his role in the world, colors and words, and even death. This thoughtfulness leads him to be confused by what he encounters and alienated from his fellow peers. Stephen's first meal at the "grown-up table" also signifies an important change. It is one of his first real encounters with the adult world and he is immediately met with fights about politics and religion.

This chapter contains too much to be said about morality, growing up in an unfamiliar world, religion, politics, art, loneliness, purpose, punishment, and other deep topics. While it is nearly impossible to encompass all of these in one blog post, it is much easier to understand these topics step by step, learning them slowly by looking at it from the perspective of a child. Overall, APOTAAAYM has forced me to recall my thoughts as a child and revisit old topics from a new (old?) perspective.